I think they need to hire us to rewrite the whole story / universe.
First and foremost, no more flashbacks and random character name drops / screen time!
They need to invest time and effort to introduce main characters like flash, aquaman etc just like how MCU did with antman, hulk etc. it's a proven formula, the audience need to be able to release to the characters. Briefly having a narrator explaining the history in 5 min just doesn't cut it.
Vader has one fight scene I thought? So maybe like 1 minute of screen time. But that's OK -- he'll look like ANH so its not like they're reinventing him. Unless he does some crazy judo-flight moves to be 'today'.
Some random thoughts, for a while when I saw that HT jokerized batman at sdcc, I thought the suicide movie is gonna be bout how the whole squad is gonna fight joker and his goons, and Harley being the double agent, and also more screen time / story of the batman suit that's been jokerized in BvS. And backstory of the Leto Joker and Bataffleck's history.
Long story short, it was a fairly generic movie with very average special effects and mixed bag of performances from the casts. There were good laughs here and there and some fairly funny lines but only because they kept on throwing it as us until something eventually sticks. You know that saying, even a lousy machinegun will hit some targets. I give it a 6/10 only because I went in with practically zero expectation. I can't decide which one is the better movie, this or BvS.
Read on for the long story long version on my problem with this movie.
There is basically two version of this movie badly cut together. Remember those rumours of reshoots to add humour that was shot down? Turns out is true because you can see an obvious tonal shift from the second arc onwards.
Performances from the casts are a mixed bag. The stand out would be Margot Robbie as Harley. She is an eye candy and understands the character very well. Will Smith, well, he is the doing the Will Smith thing. Is not a breakout performance of any kind. Is just Will Smith. Captain Boomerang is the comic relief, to the point that his character is a caricature. I am not sure if that is how the character should be cause the Captain Boomerang in Arrow is like miles better. El Diablo has some surprisingly heartfelt scene and reserved performance. Rick Flagg is your generic GI with a predictable character arc. Killer Croc and Katana are as cookie cutter as it gets and has basically zero character development. Don't even get me started on Slipknot. He is the first to die and in an extremely pointless scene that almost feels insulting. In a nutshell, David Ayer is not the right guy for this. He can't handle an ensemble movie and it shows. There is very little chemistry with the whole squad.
Enchantress turns out to be the main villain as I suspected and kudos to them for hidden the other villain so well though ultimately, is also another generic villain. Viola Davis is a great Amanda Waller but she doesn't really have much to do here beyond acting intimidating. She will be a good character that has constant presences in all DCU ala Nick Fury though.
For a supposedly major entry into the DCU, Suicide Squad doesn't actually feels like a big budget movie. Remove the DC branding and their characters and it would have been a generic B-grade movie about a ragtag bunch on a mission. The fire CGI for El Diablo is just horrendous. Is some of the worse I have ever seen. Most of the time, it looks like something out of a PS2 era videogame.
The action scenes are also horribly shot like most modern movies these days. Too much closeups, too much cuts, and the overall dark cinematography does not help convey any clear action scenes. Half the time, you are wondering who is fighting who. These are worse than Nolan fight scenes. Say what we want about Snyder but that man knows how to do clear and concise fight scenes.
The soundtrack is easily the one of the weakest aspect of the movie. It is scored like a Tarantino film, i.e. using famous songs but it doesn't fit well in this movie at all. There is no consistency to the choice of songs and I get that they are trying to show that these are a bunch of individuals that could not be more different from each other but it is really jarring each time a different song comes up. GoTG did it perfectly well with this formula. SS sounds like a bad mix tape.
And the Joker, after all that hype and also BTS shenanigans by Jared Leto, his Joker can be summed up with one word, generic. Strip off his green hair an pale makeup and he is just another generic psychopathic villain. Suffice to say, his Joker will go down as the weakest one yet for a live action depiction. This is not the case of Ledger setting the bar to high, this is more of a case of someone not really getting the character at all. There is an element of self consciousness to this Joker. Like Leto himself feels silly playing this role. The result is a half baked portrayal of one of the greatest villains of all time.
DC is currently at a crossroads. They need to either go all serious or go light. This hybrid half dark/half comedy approach is not working at all.
Vader has one fight scene I thought? So maybe like 1 minute of screen time. But that's OK -- he'll look like ANH so its not like they're reinventing him. Unless he does some crazy judo-flight moves to be 'today'.
If I had to guess, I'd say studio with the director capitulating to their whims. If Ayer had mega hits under his belt he could have stood his ground, but as much as I thought Fury was an excellent movie, the WB execs in charge of the DCU probably didn't even see Fury.....
You know, whenever I hear about troubled productions, I can't help but look back on Iron Man. Apparently, there were money problems, the script kept changing, heck, they even improvised certain lines. And yet, it turned out to be, well, "Iron Man".
One of the big differences here is I believe the story goes that Favreau was told to fix it and created something that worked, not fantastic with the quick final battle but still a fun and awesome film. With WB the executives are saying "We'll help you fix it," and it has been showing that people who aren't filmmakers are having too much say in how to pull together a film.
eh, I think if Leto is the next big bad in the solo batman flick, he'll have more scenes and we'll get a better grip on his actual take then the 20-25 minutes in SS. I don't think we've seen enough to judge just yet.
Most reviews have called him "fine" and said that he could have been left out of the film altogether, that's its more of a glorified cameo so I don't think this will make or break Leto's time as the Clown Prince.
I think a lot of people here may have different opinions of what is "classic".
Is this classic? If so, I doubt it would look right when realized onscreen... without a major overhaul to meld him into the reality around him. Like they did with Ledger.
The comic books don't even know what is classic anymore as the latest retcon has THREE Jokers running around splitting up a rich history of a character into shards. Who knows where it'd go at this point too.
I don't know if the DCEU can really survive yet another. Remember Green Lantern was supposed launch this initially and that flopped and so they wen't back to the drawing board. MoS was really split amongst fans and critics and they decided to press on. BvS was a fumble despite people really loving it and SS seems to be more of the same. With WW and JL already starting the hype train, a reboot now would be an enormous embarrassment to the brand. The WB executives are already trying to play catch up to Marvel's 10 year headstart could you imagine suddenly scratching everything even after Justice League and then starting again with Marvel in Phase Four? The filmmakers wouldn't be able to do anything without them (WB Execs) micromanaging everything.
The DCEU's best bet would have to be to make sure the sequels which undoubtedly will still happen and the ones coming up be in the tone they want from the get-go and avoid this eleventh hour stitching together yet again.
